Design and virtual validation of a turbocharger for an internal combustion engine in a range extender application

The thesis project has been carried out during an internship at Leonardo Engineers for Integration Srl, and is included in a series of works previously started by the Company in a collaboration with Politecnico di Torino. The goal of the whole project consists on the design and optimization of an internal combustion engine that will be used as a range extender unit in a hybrid vehicle, whose global demand has substantially increased over the last few years. The focus of this thesis project will be on the design of the axial turbocharger that will be coupled to the engine, highlighting in particular the design choices and procedures that led to its definition, and the subsequent virtual validation. The stress computation cannot be uncoupled from the selection of materials, for which will be proposed a suitable choice to be employed in the different components constituting the turbo-group. Successively, a preliminary dimensioning of the turbine shaft cooling system will be analyzed, and the three-dimensional CAD model of the turbocharger will be created through the software PTC Creo Parametric. The main calculations needed for the design and virtual validation of the turbocharger will be carried out through the help of the software Microsoft Excel, while for some iterating calculus, such as the turbine cooling system dimensioning, MathWorks MATLAB has been preferred.